Air quality professionals are frequently required to assess dust impacts from mineral sites, particularly as part of the planning process, and there is currently little government guidance on how a dust assessment should be undertaken. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) replaced previous guidance in 2012 as part of a process to reduce the volume of planning guidance. New national Planning Practice Guidance (nPPG) for minerals was subsequently published online but provides little further detail. Much of the information within the previous guidance was useful and its replacement has created a vacuum.

This IAQM document has been prepared to assist practitioners undertake such dust assessments for mineral sites. It aims to provide advice on robust and consistent good-practice approaches that can be used to assess the operational phase dust impacts. This guidance is designed for use in the planning process; it is not designed for other purposes such as Environmental Permitting.